AN ASSESSMENT OF THE OPERATIONAL LOGISTICS OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS’ RELIEF ORGANISATIONS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This study centers on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)’ relief organisations in Nigeria with a focus on their First Mile Distribution (FMD) and Last Mile Distribution (LMD)’s operational logistics, transport management practices, as well as their impacts on IDPs especially during relief operations. This study aimed at assessing the operational logistics of Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) relief organisations in Nigeria, with reference to National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Jigawa State Emergency Agency (JISEMA). Specific objectives of the study were to assess the operational transport practices, determine performance and impacts of relief organisations’ logistics during relief aid distributions to IDPs, analyse relief organisations’ transport operations’ challenges, and lastly examine the perception of IDPs’ on relief organisations’ LMD in the study area. Primary and secondary data on relief organisations’ operational logistics practices, performance, challenges and IDP perception were obtained using questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and available retrospective data from NEMA and JISEMA. This study adopted a survey method with respect to both descriptive and inferential statistics. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) technique was used to estimate the relationship between transport operations’ practices and challenges of relief organisations as regards last mile aid delivery. Purposive sampling technique and simple random sampling procedure were adopted with respect to descriptive and inferential research design. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test was performed to determine the normal distribution of the data and hypothetical statements were tested using the simple and multiple linear Regression tests of significance as tools for parametric tests. Factor Analysis method was also used to examine how underlying constructs influence the responses on a number of measured variables while applying Principal Components Analysis (PCA) procedure for finding hypothetical variables (components) which accounts for the variability in multidimensional data to extract principal factors from among the multiple factors that were used to operationalise the research constructs. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 23) software was used for empirical findings and data analysis relevant to this study. Empirical findings in this study revealed that transport practices had no impact on organisational performance as the hypothesis is statistically insignificant at (p = 0.286, or p > 0.05); while transport challenges had impact on relief organisations logistics operations as revealed from the elicited responses of relief organisations’ staff (p = 0.000, or p < 0.05) thus statistically significant. Network Analysis (Transport Model), using Excel Solver revealed huge interaction (volume of transport) between relief aid material points of origin (other states with food items) and Jigawa State (IDP destination camps). The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) also revealed among others, bad roads and non-adherence to transport practices as the independent variables with strongest variations. The study recommends that, relief aid organisations should strictly adhere to tested and proven transport practices, employ logistics/transport professionals, outsource their transport to credible 3PLs, employ IT transport gadgets for transport visibility and employ good security measures when transport/ distributing relief aid materials to IDP camps to avert relief aid diversions and theft.